Better Off Dead : : The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human / / ed. by Sarah Juliet Lauro, Deborah Christie.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• MitwirkendeR: Bond, Elson,; Boon, Kevin,; Christie, Deborah,; Collins, Margo,; Degoul, Franck,; Dendle, Peter,; Fhlainn, Sorcha Ní,; Hand, Richard,; Kee, Chera,; Lauro, Sarah Juliet,; Meaux, Kevin,; Muntean, Nick,; Murphy, Bernice,; Pifer, Lynn,; Zani, Steven,
• HerausgeberIn: Christie, Deborah,; Lauro, Sarah Juliet,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Fordham University Press, , [2022]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)

The zombie is ubiquitous in popular culture: from comic books to video games, to internet applications and homemade films, zombies are all around us. Investigating the zombie from an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on deep analytical engagement with diverse kinds of texts, Better Off Dead addresses some of the more unlikely venues where zombies are found while providing the reader with a classic overview of the zombie’s folkloric and cinematic history. What has the zombie metaphor meant in the past? Why does it continue to be so prevalent in our culture? Where others have looked at the zombie as an allegory for humanity’s inner machinations or claimed the zombie as capitalist critique, this collection seeks to provide an archaeology of the zombie—tracing its lineage from Haiti, mapping its various cultural transformations, and suggesting the post-humanist direction in which the zombie is ultimately heading. Approaching the zombie from many different points of view, the contributors look across history and across media. Though they represent various theoretical perspectives, the whole makes a cohesive argument: The zombie has not just evolved within narratives; it has evolved in a way that transforms narrative. This collection announces a new post-zombie, even before the boundaries of this rich and mysterious myth have been completely charted.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- And the Dead Shall Rise -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 ‘‘They are not men . . . they are dead bodies!’’: From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again -- Chapter 2 ‘‘We are the mirror of your fears’’: Haitian Identity and Zombification -- Chapter 3 Undead Radio: Zombies and the Living Dead on 1930s and 1940s Radio Drama -- Chapter 4 The Zombie as Other: Mortality and the Monstrous in the Post-Nuclear Age -- And the Dead Shall Walk -- Introduction -- Chapter 5 A Dead New World: Richard Matheson and the Modern Zombie -- Chapter 6 Nuclear Death and Radical Hope in Dawn of the Dead and On the Beach -- Chapter 7 Lucio Fulci and the Decaying Definition of Zombie Narratives -- Chapter 8 Imitations of Life: Zombies and the Suburban Gothic -- Chapter 9 All Dark Inside: Dehumanization and Zombification in Postmodern Cinema -- And the Dead Shall Inherit the Earth -- Introduction -- Chapter 10 Slacker Bites Back: Shaun of the Dead Finds New Life for Deadbeats -- Chapter 11 Zombie Movies and the ‘‘Millennial Generation’’ -- Chapter 12 ‘‘Off the page and into your brains!’’: New Millennium Zombies and the Scourge of Hopeful Apocalypses -- Chapter 13 Playing Dead: Zombies Invade Performance Art . . . and Your Neighborhood -- Afterword: zombie (r)evolution -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index